Losing is Fun: Kandros Fir Dwarf Fortress [Khazad Spoiler Thread]

[Gaspar]

I played turn 35, but I won't report it now... Too much it's at stake... The results in between the turns are going to be crucial to the part I'm going to play in the rest of the game...

Fingers crossed.............................................

Guessing he ended up with a barb next to his settler escort.

[Brian Shanahan]

Guessing he ended up with a barb next to his settler escort.

My guess is more dramatic.

[Ichabod]

The game is not lost

I'll give a proper update once I finish my weekend duties! Next report is surely a busy one (again, only compared to the previous ones in this thread :neenernee).

[Ravus Sol]

Anticipation...

Rising...

[Ichabod]

Sorry to keep your guys waiting, especially since the updates will probably not live to their expectations . Well, enough talking, let's get to business.

Turn 35:

So, last report I was getting everything in place to found my second city. The settler escort was pretty thin, since I was expecting to be able to found the city the same turn that the settler leave my borders (so no risk of getting attacked by hidden nationality units). Unfortunately, a forest grow outside my borders obliged me to take some risks:



As you can see, my warriors can't see the dangers that may be lurking in the wilderness. So, the first one, takes a brave step for the glory of the dwarven empire:



Not a good thing... The RNG has been pretty bad to me this game (I haven't won any battles yet, even though I only explored with agressive warriors) and my odds against a bear attack wouldn't be reliable (though they would be higher than 50%, I think). Since there are a lot of griffons roaming the area, getting my two warriors killed in between turns wouldn't be that difficult. Of course, losing the settler would me a major set back in my plans.

But I had to take that chance. One of my warriors was lost, I'd have to make others, delaying the city for too long. So I moved the settler and both warriors to the tile and ended the turn... Luckily, the turn went quickly through the other players, so I didn't have to wait for too long...

In other matters, exploration continued. A griffon ate Dantski scout that was walking together with my warrior:



And my warrior went the direction Selrahc told me that Jkaen was. I really want to meet Jkaen quickly:



Education was finished when I ended my turn.


Turn 36:

I was greeted by the Education splashscreen when the turn began. If you look closely, you can see that we have good news:



The bear decided not to attack the cuddly dwarves near him and went the other way. So, the city of Hindenburg (couldn't fit the full name) was founded in the planned spot.



Started building a warrior. I'll fortify my defenses and then I'll send some guys to explore.

So, let's take a look inside Hindenburg:



To the left you can see one of the reasons why I founded Hindenburg in this spot. I have instant connection between my two cities, making them share resources and netting 2 commerce of trade routes (bear in mind that we don't have exploration, so we can't build roads). Two commerce may seem little, but it's a big boost so early in the game. Founding my second city shortened the time to tech mysticism from 13 to 10 turns and that's without any cottages.

Speaking of cottages, my worker started building my first one, since education finished this turn:



And a look inside boatmurdered:



Don't be fooled by your eyes. We are at the happy cap in this city, since the dwarven vaults have a 1 turn delay to change levels. We have 2 unhappy faces for lack of gold in our two cities. Like I said, the plan is getting to Mysticism, revolt to apprenticeship + God King, and get to 100 gold fast. We are losing 2 gold per turn due to maintenance. When Myst is in, we'll have 30 gold (50 - 10*2). At 100% gold we are making 15 gold per turn. Coupled with god king + cottages, we'll need 3,5 turns at 100% gold to get to the desired 100. Than is onwards to mining -> RoK. Maybe throw AH before them, but that's unlikely.

Demographics are looking better:



If the diplomatic screen isn't lying to me, we are the first to 2 cities from the players we know! That's good. And I'm hoping that the cottages will give us a tech lead, being financial and all.

By the way, our exploring warrior took the wrong side of the karma balance and was killed by a griffon... I'm guessing it's another griffon, not the one seen in the previous screenshot... That'd be very unlucky!

Finally, here's a screenshot of the game settings. I hadn't take a look at it since the start of the game, but the Selrahc diplo opened my eyes. Interesting to notice the "no huts" and "no unique features".



Selrahc mentioned "no lairs" too, but I can't see it in the settings. Truth be told, I've only seen dungeons up until now. No barrows, lairs, forts (the ones who spawn barbs). That's one of the problems of bad exploration... I have little to use as basis for my suspicions and wonderings...


So, any questions, comments, suggestions (I guess only ded lurkers can give suggestions), requests? I'm still learning how ro make interesting updates. We have to do something about it, since FFH PBEM VI is the least watched of all the FFH PBEMs (just like IV, the other one I was playing)...

[Brian Shanahan]

Probably was the same one, you left your warrior within 2 tiles of the griffon, therefore available for killing in the IT. Hope he desn't lurk that area if you want to meat JKaen.

[Ichabod]

Ok, I've been promising this for too long, so here it is. I'll make a post about the war I am planning against Irgy and Mardoc of the Kuriotates. First, I'll try to give you some of the reasoning for why I'm planning on attack them. Then, I'll try to explain how I plan to make the attack sucessful. Here we go:

1. Why attack Irgy and Mardoc of the Kuriotates?

Well, it all started when I was making my choices for this game. I was confident that I would get Tasunke of the Hippus and I made big plans to how I'd go about the game. Unfortunately, that made me not think much about my other picks. Due to how the rules worked regarding the picks, I ended up with my second choice, the Khazad.

What's the problem with the Khazad? The Khazad are not made to follow the standard multiplayer civ game. That's because of the dwarven vault system, which make city spam not a good option. I cannot afford to have many cities, since that'd mean massive unhappiness in them. And to get the necessary gold for this not to happen, I'd need to severely cripple my research.

Of course, things aren't as dire as I may be putting them. Pocketbeetle has shown that you can win a game even with a civ that can only have 4 productive cities if you play your cards right. So, here I am trying to play my cards right.

The other problem with the Khazad is that they don't have acess to the magic line after the "first tier", adepts, that is. So, lategame is bad for me. If you read FFH PBEM I, you saw what just one archmage can do. I won't be able to compete against armies of mages and their summons and direct damage spells. And what is very bad due to this game settings: I can't get acess to the vitalize spell (nature 3) which turns plains tiles into grassland tiles (together with other terraforming effects), except if I get a religious archmage hero. So, I'll stick with the bad terrain until the end...

So, I have to enter lategame with a big advantage compared to the other teams, so that they cannot win even with our nerfed lategame.

Fortunately, my Civ also has some advantages and those advantages go well with my leader traits (which are awesome, by the way). I'll try to funnel that advantages to cripple my opponents and get me in a good position. Of course, there's the fact that early wars almost always end up with you letting another civ run away, the one which kept teching and expanding peacefully. That's true, albeit not so much in this game. Why?

First, the map. As you can see, there's not much good land around. Expanding won't give the other teams that much compared to my attack plan. Especially if the players in this game manage their economies badly, which is something I'm counting on. Second, the technological breakthrougs in FFH aren't so bad as in Civ IV BTS. If you fall behind in tech in BTS, you are toast. Maces, for example, completely dominate any classical era units. But that won't happen so badly in FFH.

It takes quite a while to tech past the axeman/archer/horseman/adept phase of the game. Mages take a looooong time to become useful (because of tech and XP demands); nobody ever teched iron working in all PBEM's (only pocketbeetle when the game was already won), so iron champions aren't a problem; the late game religious powerhouses (the archmage heroes) are quite down the tech tree too. So, an army made of Catapults + bronze axemen can do damage quite late into the game too.

There are two dangerous units, though. Units that don't demand too much tech and are strong enough to cripple me quite a bit. Those are priests (from any religion, which are strenght 5, don't count as melee units and get free xp), avaiable at priesthood, and horse archers (very mobile, strenght 6, defense bonuses), avaiable at stirrups. That's why I'm trying to direct Irgy's research, so that he doesn't get this units in time for them to be useful.

Apart from those two threats, I'm confident that my army combination can tackle everything my opponents (and especially Irgy) can throw at me.

But why are you planning on attacking the Kuriotates and not another Civ?

1st. The Kuriotates are a civ with a lot of potential after getting set up. You all saw what pocketbeetle did on PBEM I. And what's worst is that pb's thread is a guidebook of Kuriotates play that Irgy can follow. If I let them develop, I won't be able to counter them later. So I have to fix the situation early, when they are most vulnerable.

2nd. The Kuriotates are close. I've shown you the likely places where their going to found their second city and it's extremely close to my capital. That's key for me to win the battle, since my army will be made with slow movers.

3rd. Irgy is a very, very peaceful player. If he played the Sheaim peacefully, imagine how he will play the kuriotates. I'm expecting to fight warriors and adepts, not much else. And not a lot of them, too.

4th. I want to have fun. Attacking is fun and will give things for me to report and for you to read.



The second part of this analysis will talk about army composition (and tech plan to get to them). If you have any doubts or comments about what I just said, feel free to point them out.

[Thoth]

4th. I want to have fun. Attacking is fun and will give things for me to report

Speaking of Fun things, have you found any magma vaults yet? And do you plan on building any Dwarfen Atom Smashers?

[Ichabod]

2. Army Composition:

I think the discussion of army composition should be made coupled with a discussion about tech path, since you need to be able to build the units before building them, obviously.

So, what are the techs I have now?

1st phase:

Crafting (starting tech), Agriculture, Ancient Chants, Education.

What can I build with these techs? Warriors and Scouts (non-factor).

These techs are necessary for me to get my economy running. I wasn't thinking about military actions while teching them.

2nd phase:

Getting to Runes of Kilmorph: Mysticism -> Mining (reveals bronze, something we will need, so the third city will probably be one claiming it)-> Way of the Earthmother

What can I build after these techs? Warriors, Thanes of Kilmorph (strenght 3, medic 1), Soldiers of Kilmorph.

Runes of Kilmorph will be absolutely necessary for our attack. I'd like to get the Holy City too, because I have a plan that uses it.

First, the thanes will be our medic units, since I probably won't have priests avaiable in this attack. They aren't very capable attackers, but are an utility unit, being able to pop captures cities borders (and take them out of revolt).

Thanes of Kilmorph:

The Soldiers of Kilmorph might be useful too. They are strenght 4 units, that can use weapons to get more strenght. Very similar to axeman, but they are more expensive (90 hammers to 60 hammers). On the other hand, they can be used to rush production of a building (adding 45 hammers on normal speed) and will be avaiable earlier, so I can start building them before axeman.

Soldiers of Kilmorph:

Third phase:

Second Economic Build-up: Animal Husbandry - Calendar - Festivals - Exploration

What can I build after these techs? Same as before.

I cannot pass this techs. I need them to develop my cities and be in good economic shape. Unfortunately, it'll delay the military ones, but nothing I can do about it. Exploration will be key to make a road connection to the front too.


Fourth phase:

The Dwarves Advantage: Masonry -> Construction.

What can I build after these techs? TREBUCHETS!

You probably know the FfH catapults, don't you? They are awesome. They have an innate 80% () retreat chance and can do a lot of collateral damage.

But you know what's more awesome? Trebuchets, the dwarven replacement for catapult. Let's compare the two:

Catapult:

Catapult:


Race: N/A
Unit Class: Siege Units
Requires: Construction
Siege Workshop
Starts With: Does Not Receive Defensive Bonuses
+80% Withdrawal Chance
Cannot Damage Any Unit Past 75%
Can Bombard City Defenses 15% per turn
Does collateral damage at full strength of up to 50% damage to 6 units
Info: 4/3
1
Cost: 90

Trebuchet:

Trebuchet:


Race: N/A
Unit Class: Siege Units
Requires: Construction
Siege Workshop
Khazad
Starts With: Does Not Receive Defensive Bonuses
+80% Withdrawal Chance
>Can Bombard City Defenses 25% per turn
Does collateral damage at full strength of up to 70% damage to 6 units
Cannot damages units more than 75%
Info: 6/4
1
Cost: 90

Yes, that's right. Trebuchets are stronger (+50% stronger on attack), do more collateral damage to more untis while costing the same. There is no way for cities to hold with a barrage of trebuchet attack. I'll need a lot of them, though, so I want to start building them fast. Luckily, agressive leaders have half cost siege workshops .


Fifth phase:

Getting Bronze Weapons: Bronze Working

What can I build after these techs? Axemen + bronze weapons.

Axemen are the second tier of the melee units in FFH. They are strenght 4 compared to warrior's 3. They are cheaper than SoKs and that's a bid advantage in the early game. Since we'll get Bronze weapons too after teching BW, the axemen will be strenght 5 with free combat 1 (+20% strenght) from the agressive trait. These guys will be the core units of my army, together with trebs.

Axeman:

Overview:

These are, like I said, the bulk of the forces I'm going to throw at Irgy: Axemen/SoKs (hopefully str 5), Trebs (6/4 collateral damage) and Thanes (medics).

There are two major problems with this stack:

1st. Getting attacked! We have the advantage when attacking, due to the awesome trebs, but I don't have much defense against opponent attacks. Defensive terrain might help, but I can't count on it.

2nd. Mobility. Trebs are 1 move units and there's no way to get past that (no mobility promotion, no spells). They don't even get the double movement on hills from the dwarven race (which is awesome too!). Siege weapons also take a lot of turns to heal and they are constantly heavily damaged after retreating.

So we need a solution for both of these problems... Luckily, I have one!

Behold Bambur, the first RoK hero. He is avaiable at the Arete tech, which is the one I'll head to after BW. He's a strenght 5 hero (str 6 with bronze weapons) and more important: he has the enchantment 1 spells. How does that help counter the above problems:

1st. Bambur is a hero, so he'll get 1 xp per turn and have acess to the heroic defense promotions. He'll be the top stack defender, with very high odds against most of the things Irgy can throw at me, so that'll likely make him not do it. But that's not all. One of the enchantment 1 spells, Enchanted Blade, gives the enchanted blade promotion to every unit in the stack. What does it do, you ask?

Yeah, that's another +20% strenght, coupled with the +20% from the combat 1 free promotion that I get from agressive, that I'll have and Irgy won't. 5 strenght + 40% = 7 strenght. Hopefully, even if attacked my troops will hold up.

2nd. While I can't do anything about the 1 movement of trebs (making a good combat road network might help), I can get over the time required for them to heal. That's the second important advantage of Bambur: the second enchantment spell, repair.

Yeah, that's right. Instant healing for siege units, that doesn't even require them to be stationary. While I could get both this spells with adepts, going to KotE is bad play for the dwarves, since any further down the magic line is worthless for them. I can get the advantages without the costs by building Bambur. He'll be a key achievement for this war to work. Luckily, I don't see anyone going to Arete any time soon.

I was planning to bulb arete with a prophet. Unfortunately, due to the tech bulb order for prophets, that won't be possible, since a lot of other techs will get in the way. But I have a plan for the Great Persons I'll get, which I'll explain in the next post, about strategic planning. As a heads up, I'll need the RoK holy city for it to work!

[Ichabod]

Probably was the same one, you left your warrior within 2 tiles of the griffon, therefore available for killing in the IT. Hope he desn't lurk that area if you want to meat JKaen.

Yeah... He probably got promoted two times with the xp gained by killing dantski scout and healed himself... It was a by me...

Speaking of Fun things, have you found any magma vaults yet? And do you plan on building any Dwarfen Atom Smashers?

Despite the name of my capital, I never played Dwarven Fortress. I read the boatmurdered SG, but I don't know a thing about the game... I'm not a good dwarf.......